ARTS The Michigan Daily Tuesday, March 19, 1985 Page7 Floydian drama unfolds at Joe Louis ,y David Yount ROGER WATERS, chief writer, composer, and bass player for Pink Floyd, is touring a second time around, in an effort to play cities that were not included on his premiere solo tour. While Floyd fans await some sort of final decision on the status of the -band, Roger Waters and David Gilmour are letting them get a chance to hear them on their own, complete with tours. Waters has a reputation for putting on a "good" show. This means, of cour- ,, not only lights, but imagery, theatrics, and lavish desplays of technological art, not to mention vir- tuoso musicianship. This is an exten- ston of the Pink Floyd-type stage show, which can be simply described as elaborately but tastefully extravagant. Waters is expected to incorporate older "music (including Floyd material dating back to their second album, Saucerful of.Secrets) and to entertain the audien- ce with a dramatic presentation of his solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. The same team who put together The Wall tour are handling these shows, including Gerald Scarfe, Mark Fisher, and Johnathon Park. Roger is not your average rock star; in fact, he may be an antisuperstar: he doesn't hang out at the 'fashionable' haunts, he shys away from the limelight, and he has a strong in- dividualistic attitude that often sets him against the grain. Yet, he is well- respected among leading musicians: Eric Clapton accompanied Roger on his first tour. His album seems more like a work of art than that of many of the MTV- weaned bands of today. His lyrics are profound yet artful, and the style of the music (with sound effects like Mack trucks stopping and passing by and in- credibly realistic thunder roars) make the album an intense mix of the mediums, words and music. His two most personal (and notably classic) albums, Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall have sold nearly 30 million copies, and as of May 1984, the former had already spent 520 weeks on the Billboard LP chart, a fact that most Floydians enjoy noting. All of Pink Floyd's albums, under the leadership of Waters, have sold over 55 million copies. So, while Floyd fans deliberate on the reforming (?) or breakup (?) of their group, we can still have the chance to delight in the solo effort(s) by Waters (and Gilmour) whose individualistic approaches to music have already made rock history, and will undoub- tedly continue to refuse conformity. The music Waters makes will con- tinue to question established ideas, break new ground, and statisfy a musical audience with serious concern: Floyd fans or no, tonight's concert promises to be one of the year's most entertaining. Lets talk about jazz... By arwulf arwulf TAZZ NEEDS to be talked about. tJ Many of us are curious as to where it's been and what's hap- pening to it right now, but the media is so very heavily pop & rock orien- ted that jazz gets shelved and sometimes forgotten. z which has not been exclusively covered in previous lecture series and should be interesting as well as helpful to anyone who's curious and wants advice on the best written material pertaining to jazz. I'll be discussing at least thirty titles, covering some 80 years of american music. The lectures will continue through late April, with the following contributors: Friday, March 22nd, at the W.M. Trotter House, South African Pianists and bandleader Abdullah Ibrahim will conduct a workshop, preparatory to his concert that evening at Lydia Mendelssohn Theater. Tuesday, April 2nd, in the Crofoot room of the Michigan Union, WC- BN's Marc Taras will present Jazz Poetry. Mr. Taras has taught literary courses at the University, and has been involved in Jazz and Poetry for the better part of his life. Wednesday, April 3rd, in the Wolverine Room of the Michigan Union, a special presentation of Jazz Poetry and Live Music, with the honorable John Sinclair presiding. Jazz videos will also be shown. Don't miss out on this one! Tuesday, April 9th, hip cab driver Greg Dahlberg, one of the leading collectors of Jazz recordings in the area, will outline the history of the Bluenote Record Label. Tuesday, April 16th, WEMU's own Michael Jewett will discuss the Harlem Renaissance. I'm looking forward to two hours of Michael; he's quite a guy. Finally, on Tuesday, April 23rd, also from WEMU, Michael G. Nastos will share his perspective of the Association For the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and new music in general. These last three will take place in the aforementioned Crofoot Room of the Michigan Union. It's not too late to register for this exciting and informative series. Registration is 25 dollars, and this gains you free admission to the Abdullah Ibrahim concert on Friday, March 22nd. For more in- formation call Eclipse at 763-0046. Hope to hear from you. Roger Waters' stage show recalls the elaborateness of a Pink Floyd concert. Tonight, he brings his band to Joe Louis for another grandiose performance. White charges up ,the Ark Eclipse Jazz is offering a series of lectures dealing with the many dif- ferent sides of the music and the recording industry. Tonight's presentation, with myself as speaker, will deal with the Literature of Jazz. This is an area s Records .Count Basie - Kansas City Style (RCA) RCA has thankfully reissued these priceless recordings from the thirties with the additional tag, "Young Bill j~sie." Basie, who died just last year, aws a true giant among bandleaders but these sessions might have actually been more appropriately subtitled "Late Bennie Moten". This was the group that Basie would take over and . make over into his own orchestra. The B-side of this LP features some early scat vocals from Basie and a blues he1ping from Jimmy Rushing, Mr. Five y Five, but the highlights of this disc are the tunes culled from an excep- taonally hungry 1932 session. Iere was a hot band struggling for a luck. With Oran 'Hot Lips' Page on r tnmpet and Ben Webster on tenor they certainly were not struggling for talent. Add more vocals from Jimmy Rushing and this band could tear it up. These sessions have stood the test of time. They sound neither worn nor worried; just hungry. Here is alto soloist Eddie Durham's memory of the session: "'We didn't have any money...we had (get to Camden to record, and along ccves this little guy Archie with a raggedy old bus, and he took us there. Sgot us a rabbit and four loaves of apd and we cooked rabbit stew right a pool table. That kept us from star- ving and we went and made the recor- ds. Eddie Durham was doing most of Bennie's writing then; I made "Toby" Mat time. We just turned around and made it back to Kansas City. We hung By Doug Enders B Y SINGING an array of songs about peace, hope, and brotherly love, Josh White Jr. literally showed us how we all could come together if we only tried. If you know anything about Josh White Jr. you know that's exactly what he wanted. Ranging from pop to country; from folk and blues to spiritual, White's variety of sound touched all tastes. It was in this way that the soft-voiced singer built a warm relationship with his audience. In introducing the well known "That's the Thing About Love", White, with an evangelical tone, summoned the audience to sing as "it was time for us to lift our songs together". Once the audience got started, they didn't stop singing until the show's final song was finished, almost two hours later. In contrast to this theme of love, Josh Jr. performed the folksong "Uncle Sam Says," written by his father, Josh White. The song is about the injustice of the army's practice of segregation during World War II. Calling for unity between black and white, the song's chorus ex- claimed "let's all get together and kill Jim Crow today". One of White's most inspirational songs, 'Grandma's Hands" blended a gospel and blues sound together in its message of faith and hope. As the song came to an emotional end, the audien- ce's background harmonies (directed by White) descended gracefully in an Amen-like fashion. And in the silence that followed, everyone in the whole room marveled at the beautiful music that they had made together. This, of course, was shortly followed by a loud March of Dimes BIRTH DEFECTS FOUNDATION SAVES BABIES HELP FIGHT BIRTH DEFECTS round of cheers and self-applause. Although his songs were often about brotherly love, Josh White Jr. was not playing the role of a preacher. By no means was his performance a religious sermon in which God and love were shoved down the audience's throats. His musical message was more subtle and often funny as it inspired the audience's own feelings of goodwill to surface. To say the least, the tone of the performance was not the slightest bit serious. Perhaps the only disappointment in the show was that White played very lit- tle of his own material. Too often he relied on the songs of the likes of James Taylor or Carol King to entertain the audience. Unlike his own material, such as "Grandma's Hands", which Amazing sophistication of arrangemen- ts is in evidence here with beautiful ex- changes between Hot Lips Page and a saxophone chorus. The outchorus of "Blue Room" reveals what an ex- citable bunch of guys was in this group. "New Orleans" features the fluid con- ceptions of Ben Webster (sounding terribly modern - that is to say, wild!) while "The Only Girl I Ever Loved" is a piece of sophisticated rinky-dink with really goofy vocals. Basie himself is highlighted throughout and demonstrates his tremendous technique and understan- ding of the styles of the day. "Prince of Wales" is a textbook example of stride piano, warm and exciting, and with Hot Lips Page to boot! We recall Count Basie with loving respect and ad- miration. This glorious collection culled from the Count's formative years crackles with an energy that reminds us of our affection as well. This is a real treat. - Marc S. Taras was very fresh and exciting, these all- too familiar songs added little energy to his performance. In White's defense however, his breezy rendition of Stephen Still's "Change Partners" was very refreshing and well received. With his wide variety of music, humor, and fun-loving personality, Josh White Jr. proved not only to be a wonderful entertainer, but an in- spirational man as well. As part of the audience, you unexpec- tedly - found yourself singing background harmonies for the main performer. And let me tell you, the audience was darn good in backing up old Josh on vocals. In fact, I've never seen a tighter performance by an audience who's never sung together before. The University Activities Center is now accepting applications for positions for: COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS for all committees. Applications aredue available at the UAC MARCH 22 and are Offices - 2105 MI Union. For more information, call UAC at 763-1107 Count Basie ... priceless reissues around there for a while not doing much of anything..." Hungry I mean really hungry. The aformentioned "Toby" is a brisk- yessir! number that features the band's key soloists, Page, Webster, and Eddie Barefield. "Moten's Swing" is a classic with Basie's early Fats Wailer and James P. Johnson influences showing. No one faces cancer alone. ~ Call us. AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY' (Q NO CVLIAN BAND CAN MAKE YOU THIS OFFER. If you're a musician who's serious The Army has bands performing RUN! The 1985-1986 Michigan Student Assembly ELECTIONS Make your voice heard, and get the experience of a lifetime. RUN FOR AN MSA OFFICE about performing, you should take a in Japan, Hawaii, Europe and all serious look at the Army. across America. Army bands offer you an average And Army bands offer you the of 40 performances a month. In every- chance to play with good musicians. Just thing from concerts to parades. to qualify, you have to be able to sight- Army bands also offer you a read music you've never seen before and chance to travel. demonstrate several other musical skills. It's a genuine, right-now, imme- diate opportunity. Compare it to your civilian offers. Then write: Army Opportunities, P.O. Box 7715, Clifton, NJ 07015. AMY BAND. BE ALLYOU CAN BE. II t